Monday, September 5, 2011

Special occasions

Being gone for so long at a time, service members miss a lot of special occasions. We miss holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, children's firsts, and sometimes births and deaths. We make this sacrifice willingly for the good of our country.

Sending letters home has been a staple for those in war for hundreds of years.  It still rings true today even with the advent of more high tech solutions.  One of the perks of being in a combat zone is using the Military's APO (Army Post Office) system.  All mail going home in a personal letter size is free, as well as all sized package going from APO to APO.  This is especially handy is you need to send something to a buddy who's at a small camp with few options to get items, and a friend can send from a camp with a well stocked PX.

As technology has increased, the options for keeping in contact with loved ones, especially over important personal dates has become much easier.  The telephone system has been available for emergency calls at the very least since WWII, and in recent decades, companies have provided commercial solutions for Service Members to reach out and touch someone far back home whever needed.  With the advent and proliferation of the Internet in the last two decades, every camp now has connectivity in some sort or another.  The military provides connectivity for work purposes which typically is allowed to be used for personal use after business hours.  Most bases also have commercial companies that provide private Internet connections for those who wish to stay connected with their own personal devices at a cost.  If this is not available, units often buy a commercial satellite dish in a cooperative type of system and stay connected to home that way.  A favorite tool for Internet communication is Skype for video chat.

Pictures are a great way to keep your Service Member feeling like they aren'tt disconnected entirely from their home life.  Printed pictures are great when sent through the mail, as they can be posted on a wall in the office or barracks room. The ability to email digital photos gives people an almost instantaneous link to marking events happening back home.  Although while not there,  all pictures serve as just a simple reminder of loved ones back home, and that goes a long way to ease the feelings of disconnection.

A personal coping mechanism I use is to buy greeting cards in bulk so that they can be sent out for special occasions. This requires one to plan ahead for events over the next year.  If you think of all the birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc that occur throughout the year, it becomes a daunting task to select and deploy with literally dozens of greeting cards to parcel out throughout the deployment.  It does make a difference to those back home as well too.  This being my fourth, I've got this down much more to a science now.


This year's Labor Day also marked my anniversary with the love of my life.  I hate that we have to be apart on our special day, but we both understand the requirements of my job, and we look forward to may more together when I return home.  For me, special times are meant to be spent with family and friends wherever possible.  I've missed a lot of events, both special and routine.  Each is a hole in the heart that needs to be filled, and keeping your Service Member in your heart and letting them know they are missed is the best thing you can do.  Nobody needs to feel like they aren't missed, and I'm lucky to have the friends and family who keep me connected while serving my country.  This is the best support to the troops you could ever provide.

More to follow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments will be logged and reviewed for appropriateness.